Lenten Devotional - The Practical Disciple - Page 4

Posts in Category: lenten devotional

Lenten Devotional, Day 5, Tracking, part 2, Inductive Study (episode #65)

Inductive study can help you rapidly grow as a disciple. In today’s post I will explain, what inductive bible study is, the benefits, and offer you tools to get started.

This past Saturday rather than sitting outside as I have for my lenten discipline, I decided to go animal tracking. I found a couple of dog tracks and engaged in intense focused observation of them. I likened this focus of time and attention to contemplative prayer in my last post.  I also spoke about how this can create greater understanding and a more intimate relationship with God. If you, missed that post

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Lenten Devotional, Day 4: Tracking, part 1, Contemplation (episode #64)


Today I got out of the box of my routine for nature meditation. For the past four days, I have been giving thanks,  observing for ten to fifteen minutes in my back yard, and then recording observations. For a variety of reasons this wasn’t happening today, so I decided to go find a track and meditate on it.

This experience was a deep dive into intense focused observation. It’s a whole different calibre of meditation and observation than my usual sit and observe practice.  There are two things I can compare it to in my faith journey: contemplative prayer and inductive bible study. I’m only going to cover the first one today. I’ll cover the inductive bible study aspect in

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Lenten Devotional, Day 2 : Buddies (episode #62)


 
My dog, Bert, likes to hang out with me when I sit outside. He lept up in my lap as I sat down for my very first devotional sit spot time. The moment I finished offering thanks, he lept down. He went and did his own thing, while I observed nature and meditated on my senses. Today, he laid down right in front of me, and also sat at my side as if on vigil watching with me.

I noticed many animals moving together this morning: a pair of robins feeding, a pair of jays working a circuit above me crying out a warning of a neighboring hawk, and pairs of squirrels being squirrelly.

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Lenten Devotional, Day 1: Perishable (episode #61)


An old oak stands half dead along my fence line. I’ve been considering cutting it down for a while. Every storm drops a few more limbs, some as big as small trees. Last year, I resigned myself to cutting off a few low lying, dead limbs. Until one day, I heard the staccato rat-a-tat-tat of a woodpecker ringing out from it’s branches. I held off to provide the woodpeckers a habitat for a season.

Today, I watched a squirrel scramble over that same dead snag and put his head in the woodpecker hole. It’s now obviously empty. I am trying to decide

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